Valenship Drabbles
by erinn80
Summary: One shots based on prompts from S/J thread on Gateworld
1. Flowers

**Flowers**

Sam had spent all day going through endless meetings with other SGC scientists and now all she wanted was to go home, curl up on the bed with a box of ice cream and let all her suppressed tears fall.

She was shutting down her lab instruments when she saw something that made her stop in her tracks. Her thoughts immediately went back to many months ago, just after the awful mission to Netu.

SG1 had decided to have a team night at the Colonel's house. After dinner and many beers Daniel had passed out on the couch, Teal'c had decided to meditate on the carpet near the fireplace while Sam and Jack had stayed outside.

Her mind had still been a mess. Jolinar's memories mixed with the ones about her mother had let her emotionally drained and incredible sad. That was the reason she had drunk much more alcohol than she normally did. Slightly drunk she had found herself telling her CO about her mum, like her love for flowers and baking or her unconditional support to her kids' dreams. Happy memories until the day that had signed the end of her childhood.

She didn't remember falling asleep but the morning after she had waken up in the guest room and the Colonel had never touched that subject again. She wasn't even sure he remembered their conversation since he had had many beers too.

With trembling hands Sam reached for the object on her desk.

An orchid branch.

Her mother's favourite flower.

On the anniversary on her death.

He had remembered.

She gently brought the flowers to her nose smelling the sweet perfume and letting two single tears roll down her cheeks.

One for the person she had lost and one for the person she couldn't have.


	2. Chocolate

**Chocolate**

"Carter why are you already up? Your watch doesn't start for another twenty minutes."

"I know Sir but I woke and a smell of chocolate reached me." She replied pointing at the mug in his hands.

"Do you want a cup of it?"

"Oh yes please, Sir. It's so cold this night."

They efficiently worked together and in a few minutes Sam was sat next to him slowly sipping her hot cocoa. Their comfortable silence was broken by Jack.

"You know Carter, Teal'c once told me he about an article he read on a magazine where they associated different personalities with flavours of chocolate."

Sam raised an eyebrow giving a good imitation of the Jaffa so Jack continued to speak.

"Yeah take Teal'c for example. He's like a milk chocolate bar filled with caramel."

"Care to explain it, Sir?" she asked.

"It's obvious Carter. He looks tough and strong but inside him there is a soft heart."

She smiled and said "What about Daniel?"

"Ah Danny-Boy is like a vanilla white chocolate. I mean, it's good but you can take it only in small doses before the sweet taste starts to annoy you."

"What about you?"

"Me Carter? Well you tell me!" he replied.

She thought for a moment biting her lower lip and then she answered.

"Dark chocolate with red pepper and fine spice." _Hot and dangerous _she thought.

She saw a smirk on his face and she hoped he hadn't noticed the blush on her cheeks.

"Well it's time I go to sleep Carter. Thanks for keeping me company."

He stood and started moving towards his tent so she quickly stopped him.

"Sir! What about me?"

"You Carter? Certainly chocolate-covered coffee beans."

She narrowed her eyebrows trying without success to understand the meaning of his words.

He slowly walked away but after a few steps he turned and locked eyes with her.

"Chocolate-covered coffee beans Carter. Because they are strong, tasty and make the heart race."

He entered into his tent leaving a speechless but smiling Sam near the campfire.


	3. Poetry

**Poetry**

It was a Sunday evening and Jack O'Neill was restlessly pacing around in Carter's living room. It was their last weekend of forced leave after their ordeal on PR3-118. They had decided to have a team night and since his house had problems with the heating system – kinda ironic – Carter had offered to host it.

PR3-118. The damn frozen planet where he had been Jonah, a simple miner who could freely show his interest for Thera without risking a court-martial. Whatever relationship would have developed between them had been interrupted though and starting from next Monday they would be back to _Sir_ and _Carter_.

_Sir_. He had never hated that word so much like he did on that planet. And this mess had happened only some months after their confessions during the Zatar'c testing. So here he was in Carter's house waiting for her and Daniel to come back from the little bakery around the corner with a cake, while Teal'c was busy in the kitchen preparing a salad.

He didn't want to snoop around but he didn't want to stay near the Jaffa either. Not that Teal'c would have questioned him about the current tense situation between him and his 2IC but Jack knew the Jaffa could easily see through him. He just needed another couple of days to lock this event in that famous _we-don't-talk-about-it_ room too.

He was standing in front of Sam's bookcase checking if her books were sorted in alphabetic order when one of them caught his attention. It was an old collection of Emily Dickinson's poems and it seemed she hurryingly put it back in place since it still was out of alignment. Feeling a little guilty he picked it up and opened it. A dried flower worked as bookmark. He was pretty sure it was the orchid branch he had given her the year before. Spots that looked like dried teardrops stained the page.

He read the poem.

_Pain has an element of blank;  
It cannot recollect  
When it began, or if there was  
A time when it was not._

_It has no future but itself,  
Its infinite realms contain  
Its past, enlightened to perceive  
New periods of pain._

Apparently his 2IC had been more affected by the recent events than he thought.

He flipped through the pages of the book until he found what he was looking for. Nobody was aware of his deep knowledge of modern American poetry. He'd never live it down if anyone ever found out. Especially if Daniel discovered it.

He hoped the poem he had chosen would help Sam.

_Hope is the thing with feathers__  
__That perches in the soul,__  
__And sings the tune without the words,__  
__And never stops at all,__And sweetest in the gale is heard;__  
__And sore must be the storm__  
__That could abash the little bird__  
__That kept so many warm.__I've heard it in the chillest land,__  
__And on the strangest sea;__  
__Yet, never, in extremity,__  
__It asked a crumb of me._

He positioned the flower over the new page, closed the book and put it back in its place. He wondered if Sam would notice the bookmark's shift and understand he was responsible for it. Or maybe she would never open that book again and his action would be just another lost opportunity between them.


	4. Cuddles

**Cuddles**

Jack and Teal'c had spent long hours floating in space in a damaged Tel'tak.

Sam had been afraid to arrive too late but they were alive. _Jack_ was alive.

The relief she had felt when he had responded to her questions had been immense.

Teal'c had decided to maintain a state of kelno'reem in order to regain his strength. Daniel had returned to the front of the cargo ship with Jacob leaving Sam taking care of the Colonel.

He was deadly pale and despite the blankets that covered him he couldn't stop shaking.

"Sir, I know you are exhausted and only want to sleep but you can't. You must stay awake until Janet checks you."

"Col..d…d," he whispered.

Deciding that at the moment his health was more important than anything else, Sam moved to sit on the floor behind him, setting him in the vee of her legs and cradling him in her arms.

"Better?" she asked.

"Better but…my head… killing me." He answered weakly.

Sam started rubbing circles on his temples to soothe his aching head but stopped when she saw his eyelids closing.

"Don't stop! It's…so…good." He whined. The effects of the oxygen deprivation still present.

"Sir, please try to stay awake!"

"Talk to…me."

"About what?"

"The thing with the apple…wormhole…space-time…"

"Sir, you want me to explain you again how the wormhole physics works?" She chuckled. "Sir, you know that I realised you understand this stuff way better than what you let the others know, don't you?"

"Shhh…don't tell Daniel! Please…talk. Need to…hear…your voice."

They both knew there was a thin line between Major Carter helping her CO and Sam cuddling Jack in her arms, but in a cargo ship light-years away from Earth the difference became blurry leaving only a flow of love between two lost souls.


End file.
